


I came back for this

by m36



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:26:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29244282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m36/pseuds/m36
Summary: Harry and Ginny's first conversation after the battle.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley
Kudos: 10





	I came back for this

“Gin?”

“Yeah?”

Ginny turned to Harry facing away from the full night's sky she’d just been admiring. It was in that moment that she realized they had veered off the path and were no longer walking toward the burrow. That was strange. They’d taken this identical walk for almost two weeks running… She stilled.

“Gin..”

Oh. It was time. That’s what it was, wasn’t it? They were finally going to acknowledge the exact thing they’d both been making every effort to ignore. Effort. That’s the right word.  _ Effort.  _ Because it wasn’t easy not breaking down and telling him everything she needed to. In fact it threatened to spill out of her everytime she directed any words to him. She wondered if it was the same for him; If that’s why they’d been communicating in one-word sentences and shared looks, because it was just as hard for him to keep it all in and not rupture the bubble they’d been encased in since the battle three weeks ago. 

_ Three weeks ago they’d all been rushed off back to Auntie Muriel’s a few hours after the battle that ended it all. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived by portkey outside Molly had run out to greet them with Charlie rushed out after her and stepping in between them all aggressively pointed his wand at Ron “What did I do to get the twins back for turning your teddy bear into a spider?”. A question about a childhood story between two of her brothers should not have sounded that sinister. Ginny hadn’t even registered the answer but Charlie must have found it acceptable because next he ran toward Ron to encase him in a hug. In the same breath Harry made eye contact with Ginny and ran to her. She was in his arms before she knew what was happening. “Thank Merlin. Thank Merlin. I was so..” he sobbed into her neck “I know. I know.” is all she could say back.  _

_ Two weeks ago they’d held Fred’s funeral in the farthest corner of the property. Ginny sat through the entire thing in a daze. Completely silent and still. Keeping her hands busy by encasing her mothers in her own. It wasn’t until Harry put his arm around her that she realized people were getting up to leave and that it was over. That it’s. Her brother was in the ground, the headstone had been engraved. “Just wait” Harry whispered in her ear, putting pressure on his arm to keep her down when she made to get up too. When everyone had made their way up the hill toward the house Harry helped her up and led her to the grave. A sob broke out of her so suddenly she surprised herself with the noise. They stood there long enough- Harry holding her and swaying in place while she cried- that her legs became heavy underneath her. An insurmountable jumble of thoughts swam through her head then. Among them Ginny found enough time to contemplate how Harry had known exactly the right time and space she needed to mourn her brother. Of course he’d known though. Mixed up in her own thoughts she had allowed him to lead her back to the house and he didn’t leave her side for the rest of the night.  _

_ And really he’d continue to offer that same comfort to her anytime they were in the same room together since. Ever present at her side- always willing to lend a hug, a kiss on the forehead or a squeeze of her hand just when she needed it.  _

But now all of those comforting moments and heavy silences were coming crashing down on her. 

“Oh…. When?”

  
  


“Huh?”

  
  


“When?” she manages to get out louder this time. “When are you leaving?”

  
  


“Oh.. Oh Ginny you thought… Ginny, no. No.” 

Harry wiped away her tears -when had those gotten there?- and enveloped her in a hug in one swoop. Her head spun. She let out a shaky breath. She was so sure. It felt enough like last time. 

“What? I just thought- you’ve been whispering with Ron and Hermione again with your heads all together in that annoying way you three do that lets everyone know you have a secret but you’re not sharing with anyone else and you’ve been having all these long mysterious meetings with Kingsley-”

“Ginny. No. No. That’s not what I wanted to… but I can explain if you- I can’t tell you what… it’s not that I don’t want to it’sjustnotmineto.” He pressed his lips into a thin line at that. “But with Kinglsey. I can. I can. I can and I will, I’ll tell you it all but that’s really not what I meant to…”

Ginny sighed deeply and removed herself from him then. She gave him a seething look and turned on her heels toward the burrow. 

Harry grabbed her wrist in two steps and stopped her.

“Ginny, wait. I’m sorry. I mucked that up quicker than I thought possible. Please… come hear me out okay?” 

How could she ever deny such a pleading look on his wonderful face? She slid her hand into his and nodded her head. After all, she wasn’t really mad. She wouldn’t have really left. Not now. Not when she needed the bubble to burst. When she missed him, even still after having him basically glued to her hip for the past three weeks. She missed him. The closeness they’d had the last few weeks seemed more out of survival than anything. She didn’t mind it though- she’d become so used to sharing her personal space with him in her fifth year that this felt as natural as breathing. Having had that closeness ripped out from under her after Dumbledore’s funeral nearly a year ago had rocked her world more than she had expected it would and it had been so nice to have it back. Her eldest brothers may have grimaced at their closeness on the couch a time or two but otherwise it’d gone unmentioned. And she was thankful. Because it was easier to breathe near him- knowing exactly where he was and not spending every half hour wondering if he was alive or not like she’d gotten accustomed to over the last year. She could admit that she needed more though. Maybe he did too. She hardly dared to hope- part of her had convinced herself that he’d only been keeping her company because Ron and Hermione were finally ( _ Godric, finally, it only took a bloody war)  _ together and he didn’t want to be a third wheel. 

“Can we sit?”

They’d reached the small deck near the pond. 

Harry sat and Ginny stayed standing staring out at the water. 

“Okay then.” Harry said as he (begrudgingly) stood up to meet her. 

He reached for her arm but she leaned away just in time. She wasn’t mad but she still wasn’t sure where this was going. It still felt so heavy even after knowing he wasn’t leaving. Right? That’s what he’d meant earlier? Before she could get the question out fully he’d already started talking 

  
  


“You’re not-”

  
  


“There’s a lot I owe you-”

  
  


“What?”

  
  


“Sorry.”

Ginny shook her head. This was frustrating. She just wanted to get whatever this was over with. Why was this so hard?

“No. Go on.”

“Okay.” He took a deep breath. “Look, you deserve an explanation. What happened after the wedding, where I’ve been the last nine months, what happened in the forest-” she winced at that. Tears flooded her eyes and she wanted him to stop. “-no. No. Please don’t. I don’t want to hear it. Not yet.” 

“Ginny..” he grabbed for her hand and she let him hold it this time but budged no further when he tried pulling her in for another one of his suffocating embraces. This all became too much too quick.

“I’m sorry. Again. Damn. I didn’t mean now. I’m sorry. I don’t… we don’t need to talk about it right now. But you deserve to know. And I’m telling you you deserve it. And I  _ want _ to tell you all of it. There’s no one else who would understand… Listen. That’s besides the point. I’m trying to tell you I’m here. When you want to know all you need to do is ask. You can have any answer you want. I just needed you to know that. And I know I’m not the only one who went through hell this year. I wanted you to know that I’m here for you… you know, anyway you want me to be. I know we haven’t really spoken about anything-including us. And I never expected to come back and for it all to just pick up as if nothing happened but you’ve allowed me to be-” 

And suddenly she was hugging him with such fierceness it took the breath out of him. Losing his train of thought Harry returned her affection and they let the silence envelop them again. He kissed her forehead so softly she thought she imagined it for a second. 

She cleared her throat and took a step back 

“So… I can ask anything?”

  
  


“Of course”

  
  


“You’re really not leaving? Those meetings with Kingsley.. I really thought..”

She wasn’t being dramatic. Since the funeral Harry had met almost daily with Kingsley in various locations. Sometimes Ron and Hermione went with him, other times he left alone, and Kingsley would even come around and have hurried hushed conversations with him so frequently after the first two days of it Ginny knew to excuse herself when the second she saw him enter a room. 

“I’ve been helping him with information I have on some of the Death Eaters. That’s all.” 

He took a heavy breath. And she waited. Because she knew Harry and that  _ wasn’t “all”. _

“Okay- that’s not  _ all _ .”

Aha. 

“Kingsley, he… he offered me and Ron positions as Aurors. Well, Hermione too but she declined on the spot.”

“ _ She _ declined? So you’ve accepted then? And Ron? You two go traipsing around England for nine months being sought after as trophies and you’re about to run back into the thick of it?”

“It’s not that simple-”

“ _ Yes, it is.  _ You’ve done enough. You’ve. Done. Enough!” She was angry now. Practically spitting every word out. 

“Ginny.” He said her name in a tone so serious and so starkly different from the rest of the night it made her stop on the spot

“Gin-” He started calmer “I haven’t decided. Neither has Ron, not really- he says it’s up to me. Says he’ll do it with me ‘if I want’. Honestly though? I think he’s rather into the idea of it -a job as an  _ auror _ and he wouldn’t even have to take any NEWTS. It’s practically a dream for him.”

“And for you? Is it for you? Is this what you want?”

“I  _ want _ to put a stop to this once and for all. It wasn’t just Riddle you know? It didn’t end with him; I know everyone’s acting like it did. But you and I both know that it’s not that simple. He had followers, Ginny, droves of them. And they’ll come back swinging if I let them.”

“Why is it up to you?”

“It’s not- but I- I won’t feel  _ done _ unless I’m helping.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“But listen, Gin. I haven’t given him an answer. I need to know… I won’t do this if it means I can’t have you. This. Us. _I came back for_ _this.”_ He was holding her arms by either side and looking right into her eyes now. “None of it would mean anything if I missed out on you more than I’ve already had to. Listen I know. I know I’m the one who left but I meant it, Gin, I meant it when I said I was ending it because I care about you. So much. Please believe that. It’s.. it’s possible now. I.. I have a future. And I want you in it. I mean that.” 

“Harry, I… could you do it? Could you have both?”

“What?”

“Harry, I meant what I said that day too. I knew you wouldn’t be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. I had to let you go then. And I know you won’t be happy unless you do this now. But what makes this different? There will still be bad guys after you as an auror you know? You’ll always be the Chosen One to them. A challenge.”

He sat with the weight of the truth of it all for a minute. But his mind was made up only a second after looking into her eyes again. 

“I won’t do it then. It’s not worth it”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Yes I do.”

“No, you don’t.”  _ sigh _ “Look, you said you wouldn’t do it if it meant you can’t have me… but I haven’t said that. I’m yours. I think I always have been. I’ll be yours whatever you decide just… I can’t have you running off and being noble and leaving me for my own good or whatever it is you thought you were doing before. I can’t ask you not to do this. Not when I know what it means to you. But can you do it? Can you have both?”

“Yes. I can. I know why I want to do this, Ginny. Because it didn’t all end with him. I’ve said that. But his blasted followers aren’t enough to keep me away from you. I want this. I won’t  _ let it _ get in the way… Never again, Ginny… Please?” 

There it was again. The pleading. And of course she couldn’t turn him down. Ginny did the only thing she could do then and kissed him. Their first  _ real _ kiss since last summer. It was comforting, enticing,  _ and inviting _ all at once. 

Harry hummed in pleasure as he broke the kiss and connected their foreheads. 

“So... mine huh?” 


End file.
